1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the storage of small items, and more particularly to vertical stacks of rotatable trays.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various equipment has been developed to conveniently store relatively small items. For example, U.S. Pat. Des. No. 354,869 describes trays that are stackable directly on one another. To gain access to the items stored in a lower tray, the next upper tray must be pulled off the lower tray. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,951,079; 4,736,856; 5,279,429; and 5,312,003 show lazy susans having several trays that rotate about a common post. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,498,471 and 4,823,966 disclose tray sets in which rectangular trays are rotatable at one of their ends about a post.
Of the foregoing, only the tray set of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,498,471 is designed such that the trays are closely spaced along the post. In that design, the post is eccentric to the centers of the trays. To expose the contents of a desired tray, it must be rotated from under the next higher tray.
The tray sets of the other aforementioned patents are all spaced vertically from each other a distance sufficient to reach the items on all lower trays without interference from the next higher tray. Consequently, the total space occupied by the systems includes space between the trays in which no items are stored, i.e., wasted space.
A further drawback of all the systems mentioned above is that they lack covers for the stored items. Consequently, the items can fall out of the various trays during use and while transporting the systems.
Thus, despite the availability of several kinds of rotatable storage systems, there nevertheless is room for improvement to them.